Winfried Ruigrok/Hardy Wagner/Wolfgang Amann

Researchers have typically searched for and postulated a universalistic form of the internationalization-performance relationship. In this study, we evaluate the validity of this ‘grande theory’ logic by investigating 80 Swiss multinational companies in manufacturing industries over the 5-year period 1998-2002. Our findings suggest that the form of the internationalization-performance relationship is more likely to be context dependent. In particular, firms face certain home country “givens” (geographical location, cultural/institutional attributes, and home market size) that act as moderator variables of the internationalization-performance relationship. Thus, the line of inquiry may benefit from future investigations that more explicitly explore home country effects on the form of the internationalization-performance relationship.